![Small business ombudsman Kate Carnell: "Anyone with deep pockets can win just by making a case take a long time."](http://web.archive.org./web/20180103171619/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/j/s/1/z/0/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.h0cf9r.png/1514964070962.jpg)
The small business and family enterprise ombudsman will look at whether legal aid should be extended to small firms as part of its examination of their access to justice.
Ombudsman Kate Carnell said it was often difficult to smaller firms to pursue legal action due to the time and resources involved.
"The dilemma is the court system doesn't work very well for small business if they are taking on big business or the government," she told The Australian Financial Review.
"Anyone with deep pockets can win just by making a case take a long time."
Her office will examine systems used in other parts of the world to allow small companies better access to justice. These include some form of legal aid, which is currently not available to Australian SMEs.
"A dispute for a small business potentially means you lose your house. To assume that consumers [who can access legal aid] are more at risk of serious damage than a small business is probably wrong," Ms Carnell said.
Accessing small claims tribunals is also problematic for small businesses as upper limits on the size of claims is generally low.
Another proposal is some sort of no-cost court jurisdiction, where legal costs could not be awarded against a small business even if they lose. Under some models, a body such as the ombudsman's office would decide whether a case is reasonable and qualified for access to the no-cost jurisdiction.
"There's a range of things that we think that we need to change, but we want to do the research," Ms Carnell said.
Other priorities for her office in 2018 include examining whether small businesses are really able to access defence contracts, and looking at rising power prices.
Ms Carnell has been concerned by a series of case studies suggesting some small businesses are seeing power costs double. She said on IGA supermarket in South Australia would see its bills rise $100,0000 next year.
"That's a huge increase for a little business and one that has the potential to stop it being viable."